Home Repair Group Works to Save More Homes in Dayton
For many, owning a home gives a sense of accomplishment, stability and rootedness in a neighborhood but it also comes with a lot of responsibility for upkeep and maintenance. Inflation coupled with high demand for contractors has driven up construction costs and for those with low to moderate incomes, home repairs can seem unattainable. And yet if left unaddressed, it can lead to larger and even more costly repairs later.
Seventy-nine-year-old Barbara Gruber moved into the Trotwood neighborhood of Dayton in 1980 and has many memories of the house where she raised her three children. “My youngest son was only four months old when we moved here. And I remember that night, we forgot to bring the fan ‘cause that soothes him at night,” recalls Gruber.
Over the years, normal wear and tear takes its toll on a house. Even though Gruber worked most of her life, at a nursing home and then over 20 years at McDonalds, she was not able to afford the many home repairs including a leaking roof.
“The living room started leaking, and when it started raining, I’d get my buckets and go out in the living room. And then as the years went by, more areas, roofing caved in and it got to where all the rooms just about were leaking,” said Gruber.
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Over time the deferred repairs created a domino effect. Her furnace failed causing her water in her pipes to freeze up. She bought space heaters to put throughout her house to keep warm, but even those would eventually break down because they were running all the time.
One winter Gruber lived mostly in her bedroom to keep warm, but her ceiling was deteriorating due to water damage, “This is the ceiling that caved in on me when I was asleep and it had been leaking, but I put things up there to catch it, but it came down in on top of me,” says Gruber.
WATER DAMAGE CAN WREAK HAVOC ON HOMES
Leaking roofs and pipes can cause water damage to the ceiling, walls and floor and over a short time can create mold and must in the environment.
Inside a house mold can create health problems by affecting the air quality. Mold can reproduce rapidly by tiny spores that float through the air within 24-48 hours of water exposure.
“The mold was growing in the back. I mean, it was thick. You could, I would go and scrape it, and it was killing me. I got to where I couldn’t walk, and I got real weak,” explained Gruber.
HABITAT FOR HUMANITY HOME REPAIR PROGRAM
Habitat for Humanity of Greater Dayton, a non-profit organization dedicated to building and repairing homes, got involved and helped Gruber save her home.
Galen Curry, the neighborhood repair specialist for Habit for Humanity of Greater Dayton helped Gruber through the process. She says, “He would come and talk to me and give me moral support. Tell we we’re going to make it.”
Building relationships with the homeowner is important says Curry, “A lot of times homeowners, they don’t have anybody that comes around as often as they used to. So just to have somebody to talk to, somebody to relate to.”
Gruber face lit up as she exclaimed, “They gave me a brand-new house, practically new ceilings, new furnace, new water heater, new pipes…it gave me a new life.
Curry recalls when he first came to access Gruber’s home, and she was using a walker and couldn’t walk by herself. She told Curry that they could go faster around the house if she could hold onto his arm. So, Curry took out his arm and they walked around her house. Six months later when the roof was put on and the air started clearing up Curry came back to get some updated pictures.
“I said, Ms. Gruber, we need to take these pictures again if you don’t mind. I stuck my arm out. She hopped right up and took off and I was like, wait, you need my? ‘I don’t need your arm, let’s go. Come on, keep up,’” laughed Curry as he recalled Gruber’s newly spry energy.
DAYTON HOME REPAIR NETWORK (DHRN)
Habitat for Humanity is part of a newly formed collaboration of repair groups called The Dayton Home Repair Network . The group began meeting in 2022 and officially formed in the fall of 2023.
The members also include:
- Rebuilding Together Dayton
- County Corp.
- The City of Dayton
- Dayton Energy Collaborative
- Miami Valley Community Action Partnership
- Liberty High School
- Dayton YouthBuild.
DHRN works to provide home repairs and weatherization such as insulation for those with low to moderate incomes in Montgomery County. Aileen Hull with the Dayton Energy Collaborative is Chair of the Dayton Home Repair Network (DHRN) and says one of the most important reasons they work together is because they realize the diversity of projects that are needed once they get into a house.
“So one house had a lot of mold and water damage, and usually that’s a deferral. You have to walk away because it’s too dangerous. You can’t just do a furnace replacement or some of the work when there’s mold in the house. You have to address that first, but it can be really expensive. And so, unless you have the funding for it, you have to walk away.”
Barry Strahorn with the Miami Valley Community Action Partnership says the alliance better serves the client by leveraging the funding because each organization has different levels they can commit toward a particular project. And make the application less redundant says Strahorn, “Our effort is to have one application, streamline that, and just make it an easier process for that client who may already have challenges living in a home that are in need of critical repairs.”
But for some, collaboration required a shift in thinking, from competing for funds to sharing resources. Davide Mauch, Development Director with Habit for Humanity of Greater Dayton at first was skeptical. “I realized pretty quickly that we could help more people by working together,” said Mauch.
In addition, Aileen Hull sees a strong correlation between poor housing quality and health. “A lot of people also, it’s very interesting, they don’t recognize they’re dealing with chronic illnesses, or they have other things that might not be one-on-one related, but their symptoms are definitely exacerbated by the condition of their home.”
Gruber emphatically states that if Habitat for Humanity had not come to take care of her house her situation would be dire, “I don’t think I would have a house and I would be dead. The mold was killing me.”
The repairs allow Gruber to age in place in her home and in her neighborhood of 44 years.
“I always think that we don’t lean into enough of the impact that home repairs do. There’s research that shows that focusing on home repairs for longstanding residents of the community that are really dedicated can actually help deter gentrification if you try to invest in that area, in that neighborhood.” says Hull.
DAYTON IS A MODEL FOR HOME REPAIR COLLABORATION
Other cities are starting to take notice of what the Dayton Home Repair Network is doing they are asking for advice. Hull is thrilled that the group’s synergy continues to innovate and hopes other cities can do the same.
Hull adds, “People in Dayton are in my experience, super willing to work together, which is fantastic. And I’ve heard that’s not normal for cities, so it might be different, but there’s at least some of the steps we’ve taken that can be shared and we want to share.”
Emiko Moore – Multi-Media Journalist
Emiko Moore is a graduate of Ohio State University has been a freelance producer for NBC News for the last 20 years, covering stories in southwest Ohio and in the tri-state area. She also hosted The Lebanon City Show and was a print journalist for the Western Star, focusing on Warren County. Prior to moving back to her hometown of Lebanon, OH, she worked in NYC for NBC TODAY and NHK, Japan Broadcasting Corporation. As a volunteer with Building Bridges Community Conversations, Ishinomaki Playground Project, and Miller Ecological Park, she believes it takes continuous work to strengthen communities. She is excited about journalism that explores the issues while highlighting solutions to bring about positive change.
